Soldiers As Lab Rats

Apropos Lewis Lapham’s article yesterday about government efforts to keep people from taking drugs, Raffi Khatchadourian has a memorable New Yorkerpiece about the Army giving them to people. Specifically the Edgewood Arsenal experiments in which soldiers were routinely dosed, in pursuit of a chemical weapon that could incapacitate but not kill, with substances like LSD and a particularly nasty-sounding dissociative referred to as BZ. The experiments have been under intense scrutiny due to a forthcoming lawsuit on behalf of the victims:

The lawsuit’s argument is in line with broader criticisms of Edgewood: that, whether out of military urgency or scientific dabbling, the Army recklessly endangered the lives of its soldiers—naïve men, mostly, who were deceived or pressured into submitting to the risky experiments. The drugs under review ranged from tear gas and LSD to highly lethal nerve agents, like VX, a substance developed at Edgewood and, later, sought by Saddam Hussein. Ketchum’s specialty was a family of molecules that block a key neurotransmitter, causing delirium. The drugs were known mainly by Army codes, with their true formulas classified. The soldiers were never told what they were given, or what the specific effects might be, and the Army made no effort to track how they did afterward. Edgewood’s most extreme critics raise the spectre of mass injury—a hidden American tragedy.

And this:

Once the volunteers arrived at Edgewood, they were given medical and psychological examinations, and were divided into four groups. The least healthy would be used to test equipment. The top twenty-five per cent—the Astronaut Class, as Ketchum once called them—would typically be prepared for the most dangerous chemicals. Doctors informed the volunteers in generalities and asked them to sign a consent form—usually long before any specific test was announced. The forms were designed to offer few details; as one version was drafted, the words “mental disturbance or unconsciousness” were replaced with “discomfiture.” Sometimes a little more information would be provided just before the test began, but not always. Van Sim later confessed that researchers testing nerve gas would tell volunteers that the drug might give them a “runny nose” or a “slight tightness of the chest.”

The Army still hasn’t officially admitted it did anything wrong:

In 2008, the British Ministry of Defence issued a statement to the subjects in its own drug-testing program: “The government sincerely apologizes to those who may have been affected.” That the U.S. Army is unwilling to do such a thing is a source of pain for former subjects. John Ross, the soldier who was given an overdose of nerve agent, struggled for years to convince the Department of Veterans Affairs that he was even at Edgewood. “It’s too late for me,” he said. “I just want an official apology. It was like a con job.”

Read the whole thing. While Col. James Ketchum, the main subject of the piece, won’t defend many things that went on at Edgewood, he still believes that in the context of the Cold War and because the goal was a less-deadly weapon, the tests were justifiable. What do you think?

Soldiers do as they are told. This is a particularly disgusting use of soldiers lives and health, but they could always be used as cannon fodder to pad the bottom lines of defense companies.

At least some useful knowledge and research came from their use. Can’t say that about some of the destruction of soldiers in various endeavours.

On balance, I’d rate this about a 5 out of 10 on the outrageousness scale. Sure it’s evil, but that’s life in empire. A prince has gotta do what a prince has gotta do and that includes the use of evil.

I caught Khatchadourian on NPR and he never states that the veterans allege permanent harm in their suit, at least not during the time I was listening. He also stated that the Soldiers were volunteers.

This application of the consumer product safety standards to the exigencies of national defense is childish. Soldiers serve the republic at some risk to themselves. If these men were actually harmed, they should be looked after by the same government that hurt them. But please, the anti-military propaganda is getting old.

I was one of these lab rats, They took 2 people from each base and when we got their they devided us into two groups. one group was to test equipment, and the other was to test drugs and gases. I was in the group to test the drugs and gases. I volunteered for this assignment in an effort to get on leave afterward so I could go home and get married. I tested three times on diffrent gas and three times on halusanaginic drugs and was required to test out on reaction rests afterward. When we were tested with the drugs we were put into a padded cell and were watched by both Military and civialian personel. We had no dutys during the time I spent their and I do not have any ideas just what drugs they used (but they were pretty powerful)
To this day I have always wandered if I was affected in some way or not, or have I acomplished everything I was capable of acheiving.
I am now retired and have a great wife that whtches over me, I have been to the hospital and almost died a
couple of times. I have COPD, Heart problems, Thiroid problems, and Diabetes. Could any of this now have anything to do with these tests, (I am not sure) ??? (Roy)

This just a long term government attitude that hasn’t changed and probably won’t as long as governments exist: It’s interesting; so let’s do it and hope the consequences are easy to deal with.
No respect for the victims.